Lewis barnes



Patented Aug. 18,1885.

L. BARNES.

. FENCE.

(No Model.)

fiwmiiar Wiin essay M$ UNITED STATES PATENT tries,

LElVIS BARNES, OF SOMERVILLE, NEIV JERSEY.

FENCE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 324,517, dated August 18, 1885.

Application filed January 16, 1885. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, Lnwrs BARNES, of Somerville, Somerset county, and State of New Jersey, have invented a new, useful, and Improved Fence, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to that class of fences in which posts having slots contracted at the ends are combined with detachable bars; and my invention consists in constructing the posts and the openings therein so as to receive the ends of the bars and permit them to be overlapped side by side in the contracted portions of the openings, and in providing the bars with lips, which bear against the opposite faces of the posts, all as fully set forth hereinafter, so as to lock the bars and posts firmly together and secure a very rigid structure, and at the same time permit any one bar to be detached without disturbing the others.

In the drawings, Figure l is a side view illustrating my improved fence. Figs. 2 and 3 are longitudinal sections. Fig. 4 is a face view of the post. Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation of the post.

Each post A is preferably made of cast metal, and tapers from the point 00 near the lower end upward, and is beveled below the said point to form a sharpened end, which may be readily driven into the ground, a head being formed at the upper end to receive the blows of the mallet.

In the post are openings a, each of which is contracted at the lower end to form a slot, 3 and in some instances there are holes I) between the openings a.

The fence-bars B G D consist of plates or strips of iron, preferably of uniform width, bent up at the ends to form lips 7:.

The fence is erected by driving the posts into the ground at suitable distances apart, after which one of the rails-for instance, the rail B, Fig. 2-is passed through the enlarged portions of openings a in the opposite posts, A A, and is then carried downward into the contracted portions or slots 3 of said openings, its lips z bearing against the outer faces of the opposite posts. Another rail, B, is

now applied in line with the rail B, between Patented in Canada January Ill, 18-53, No. 21,014.

the posts A A, its ends being passed, one through the opening a in the post A, and the other through the opposite opening a in the post A", the end in the post A being carried downward into the slot 3 so as to overlap the end of the rail B already in said slot, which is just of sufficient width to receive both rails when side by side, but prevent any play or rattling, the lip i of the rail B bearing against the face of the post A opposite to that against which the lip of the rail B bears. Another rail, B is applied to the post A withits end in the opening a occupied by the end of the rail B, so as to overlap the latter, as shownin Fig. 2, and then the two lower series of rails, O and D, are applied in like manner as the first.

It will be seen that by the construction de scribed the fence may be erected. with great facility and rapidity; that by overlapping the ends of the rails in the slots 3 they are held frictionally in contact, so as to give increased rigidity to the structure, and that by bending the ends of the rails to form the lips and then overlapping and forcing the rails into the contracted slots each rail is held so firmly in position that it will retain its horizontal line without any tendency to become detached or slip up into the wider portion of the opening from the movements of the fence.

It will be seen that the posts may be cast of metal without coring and at a comparativey small cost, and that the bars may be made by simply bending up the ends of ordinary iron bars, such as may be readily found in any iron market.

\Vhere it is desired to make a closer fence without increasing the number of bars, ordinary wires may be run through the openings 12.

Inasmuch as the fence bars or rails are overlapped at the ends and arranged side by side, any of the said rails may be carried upward into the larger portions of the openings and then detached-a result that would not be pos sible in that class of fences where the ends are overlapped one above the other.

It will be apparent that the posts and bars sential features above described are preserved Without limiting myself to the precise con- In testimony whereof Ihave signed my name 10 struction and arrangement of parts shown and to this specification in the presence of two described, I claim subscribing Witnesses.

A fence consisting of posts A, provided with Y 5 openings 11, contracted at the lower ends to LEWIS BARNES.

form slots 3 and flat bars bent at right angles at the ends to form lips, and overlapping each Witnesses: other side by side within the slots 3 substan- CHAS. H. GARDNER, tially as described. DANIEL E. DELAVAN. 

